Sabine Duflo, psychologist, is at the origin of a platform published in Le Monde entitled “Tablets, to distance children”, signed by several doctors and pediatricians. Their verdict is without appeal: they harm the cognitive development of young children, “from birth to the end of kindergarten, that is to say five / six years,” she said Wednesday on RMC.

This psychologist who practices as a medico-psychological center for children has found “language delays, attention disorders or impulsivity” in children “mainly stimulated” by screens, “television, or most often the tablet or the laptop.

“Children in difficulty in primary school”

How did Sabine Duflo relate their troubles to the use of these tools?

“When I see that the child is exposed, for example six / seven hours a day, and that I propose to the parents a decrease, or even a total stop of this tool, (…) two to three weeks later, we observe reboots, “she says on RMC.

His goal? Sensitize parents, with his experience as a field doctor, and alert the health authorities.

“I think it’s really a public health issue,” she says. “Because the beginnings of communication, of language, of rapport with each other, are put in place very early. If we put the child in front of a tool that harms emergences essential to its development, we are left with children in difficulty in primary.

The “four steps” method

The purpose of the platform is not to force parents to ban screens from their children’s lives, but to encourage them to be reasonable. According to Sabine Duflo, parents can use a very simple method:

“I call it the four ‘not’,” she summarizes on RMC. “There will be moments in the day when there will be no screen – I do not just talk about tablets: never in the morning, never during family meals, never in the evening before falling asleep and never in the night. the child’s room, where the temptations are great. With these four ‘steps’ there is a lot of time. “

Conscious of not “making the weight” against the big manufacturers of tablets, Sabine Duflo urges the government to seize this “public health issue”.

Conference Sabine Duflo, clinical psychologist, on the report to children’s screens. The various issues of child development are confronted with the consumption of images of children. The speaker makes recommendations for different age groups, from 0 to 17 years.

To better understand the impact of screens on child development, Sabine Duflo has four age groups: 0-3 years old, 3-6 years old, 7-10 years old and 11-17 years old. It defines the specific needs of each age group, then describes how the use of screens can meet these needs or, on the contrary, disrupt the development of the child.

This conference for parents was organized on October 14th by Ciclic, in partnership with the City of Blois.

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